Finally some good news to report about the City of Santa Ana. A woman named Estella Shulse, who “was once laid off from her job as a part-time page at the library,” died and bequeathed her entire estate – $123,000, to the library. That money is “being used to create a space designed by teens for teens in the main branch basement,” according to the O.C. Register.
“A grand-opening ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and will include games, a movie screening, and music, art and dance showcases – all in the hopes of attracting the 80 percent of Santa Ana residents ages 12 to 18 who hold library cards.”
Click here to read more about the Santa Ana Public Library’s “Teen Space” project.
In related news, one of our bloggers, Red Vixen, recently facilitated a nifty donation to the Friends of the Santa Ana Library, from the Irvine Library. Apparently the folks in Irvine were throwing away a lot of surplus books that they could not get rid of, and now those books are being picked up regularly by the Friends of the Santa Ana Library. Soon they will sold to the public in Santa Ana and the money will be donated to the Santa Ana Library so new books can be purchased. Great job Red! Way to make a difference…
I thought you’d point out that if the City Council shows up for this event the Zoo will be short of 50 monkeys again and in danger of reverting back to the Prentice heirs.
sounds great,
Thanks for the mention Art. There were a number of people involved with the book saving activities. I just happen to be the messenger!
Sue Stewart of the Santa Ana Friends of the Library has picked up over 20 boxes of books from the Irvine Friends of the Library in this past week alone. Rich Donaghy from the Irvine friends has been coordinating efforts to pack up unsold excess book inventory in boxes for Sue to pick up.
A little background: Irvine Friends of the Library has a very robust book donation program that benefits Irvine libraries each year. There are little bookstores attached to the Irvine libraries which resell donations for very modest prices to the public (usually $.25- $1.00 for books tapes, CD’s, puzzles etc…). Donors can ask for a receipt for tax purposes, too.
The library bookstore over at Heritage Park, for example, generated more than $80,000 last year, which was spent on programs and on buying new books for the library. The bookstore is run entirely by volunteers.
There was a dilemma of storage space for the Irvine books because of the massive donations each month and the relatively limited space available in the book stores. It made sense to try and find a recepient for the extra unsold books. That’s when the Santa Ana Friends of the Library stepped up to pick up the extra inventory. This cooperative effort is fairly recent and it should help both libraries achieve their goals to support literacy at reasonable prices and support library activites in their respective communities.
The Santa Ana Friends of the Library do not have a dedicated space to have a bookstore like the ones in Irvine. They have planned book sales in the community, however. The Santa Ana Friends plan on holding their next book sale on February 19-21, 2009.
Please put that on your calendar!